10 WordPress Plugins for New Blogs

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136 Responses to “10 WordPress Plugins for New Blogs” - Add Yours

• Thomas Flight - Netager.com

  November 6th, 2008 12:16 am

  Great plugins. I actually use Defensio spam blocker. That’s work great for me.

• Thomas Flight - Netager.com

  November 6th, 2008 12:21 am

  I also use cforms. But for live stats I use Woopra. I never thought about using sitemaps for a blog.

  I am looking forward to following you as you build and grow TwiTip. I just started a blog of my own, so it will be very helpful.

• Bradly Fletchall

  November 6th, 2008 12:26 am

  I’m a big fan of the “What Would Seth Godin Do?” plugin..

  http://richardkmiller.com/wordpress-plugin-what-would-seth-godin-do

  It lets you very very easily add a box aboveyour posts suggesting tha your readers subscribe. It uses cookies so it will only show the first 3 times your site is visited (unless you clear your cookies).

  It increased my subscriber count almost immediately.

• Kok Choon

  November 6th, 2008 12:36 am

  PlatinumSEO is another nice alternative to AllinOneSEO. Another important plugin I must add – The Google analytics…

• Marshall - bondChristian

  November 6th, 2008 12:40 am

  Thanks for the list. I’ll check them out.

  What about Gravatars? Any thoughts on using them?

  I see that Problogger doesn’t use them. Why?

• Steven-Sanders

  November 6th, 2008 12:51 am

  This is a very solid backbone of Wordpress plugins to start with. They are all definitely must-haves.

  Surprisingly I’ve never heard of the Simple Tags plugin.

  Just goes to show that there are so many options for Wordpress, it’s hard to keep up-to-date on them all.

• John

  November 6th, 2008 12:54 am

  What about cforms…?

  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/cforms/

• John

  November 6th, 2008 12:55 am

  doh! it’s #3… /facepalm.

  … what about Auto-Upgrade?

  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-automatic-upgrade/

• Michael Rose

  November 6th, 2008 12:56 am

  Great list. There was a similar analysis posted earlier in the year on Carbon Grafitti.

  http://www.carbongraffiti.com/notebook/2008/08/12/marketing-wordpress-15-top-wordpress-plugins

  Nice bit of analysis.

• Toma Bonciu

  November 6th, 2008 12:57 am

  Hi,

  The plugin that allows reader to twitt your post I found it to be cool. I think that it caught my attention because I knew about the others.

  Thank you

• Archit

  November 6th, 2008 12:57 am

  Just what I was looking for! :)

• Guillermo

  November 6th, 2008 12:58 am

  Let’s say I’d add… FeedBurner FeedSmith, RSS Footer, Wordpress Mobile Edition… What do you think?

• Travis Campbell

  November 6th, 2008 12:58 am

  Great post. Have you considered any of the ‘for fee’ plugins? There are quite a few out there that are worth looking at when it comes to monetizing a blog.

  Thoughts?

• Blog Marketing Diva

  November 6th, 2008 12:58 am

  All of the above are great, I also include Comment Threads, WP Google Analytics, No Revisions (for the upgrade past 2.6) and RSS Footer for customizing my blog’s footer :-)

• Rob Chant

  November 6th, 2008 1:05 am

  As I’ve just start blogging that’s a pretty useful list! I already have a few of them, but cforms and the AJAX comments plugin look as if they’re worth a look.

  I’m using Thesis for my theme, which claims not to need any additional SEO plugins. Any thoughts on that?

• Warung Digital

  November 6th, 2008 1:08 am

  Very informative post sir, I will use all of these plugins into my blog

• amirulcyber

  November 6th, 2008 1:09 am

  great article darren .well done.

• amirulcyber

  November 6th, 2008 1:10 am

  Thanks for share this plug in info.very useful to me.

• MaCo

  November 6th, 2008 1:12 am

  I ever hear about comment luv plugin. What for is it?

• amirulcyber

  November 6th, 2008 1:12 am

  Not only one plug in you mention in your article but 10 plug in.Good job.

• Bill

  November 6th, 2008 1:13 am

  Great list Darren! I have considerably more than that installed, but I see some on this list that I think I may be looking at trying out. The SEO pack is one I will definitely try out, even though I get a decent percentage of traffic from the search engines.

• Derek Neuland

  November 6th, 2008 1:14 am

  Great list! The only ones i’d add to it would be Feedburner Feedsmith, Sociable to add social bookmarking links, and smart youtube to make posting youtube videos very easy.

• Roy Scribner

  November 6th, 2008 1:25 am

  Darren – I’m happy to see that I’m not a complete idiot! I used several of the plugins on your list, along with some of Joost’s stuff and, of course, Subscribe Remind by Trevor Fitzgerald. I know that in my case, subscribing to the comments is the only way I can remember where I commented, in order to respond to follow-ups.

  I need to look into a supplemental stat package, as I had no idea how many people disable javascript, until this week.

• Your Friendly Neighborhood Computer Guy

  November 6th, 2008 1:28 am

  Glad to see I already use about half of these on my new blog. The only one I’m missing that I want is the Subscribe to Comments plug-in. I’ll be installing that one shortly.

  It’s amazing all the little tweaks that are necessary to keep your blog competitive.

• HowToMakeMyBlog.com

  November 6th, 2008 1:28 am

  Some plugins I would suggest:

  1. What Would Seth Godin Do – To have a message on top of your blog for all new visitors to welcome them and get them to subscribe.
  2. WordPress Automatic Upgrade – To automatically upgrade WordPress.
  3. Broken Link Checker – To check for broken internal/external links.
  4. MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer – To optimize the ping functionality.
  5. Comments Redirect – To redirect the commenter’s to a thanks you and please subscribe page.
  6. Wordpress Thread Comment – To improve the interactivity as users can comment on each other’s comments.

  Marko
  http://www.howtomakemyblog.com

• Yanik's Photo School

  November 6th, 2008 1:30 am

  I would also suggest the “add this” or “share this” plugins for social media sites like Digg or StumbleUpon.

  And since I installed the “lighter menus” plugin life is so much easier on the admin side!

  And the WP automatic upgrade is a must as well! Saves lots of time and it’s super fast.

• Jim Offerman

  November 6th, 2008 1:31 am

  Instead of the Related Posts plugin, use YARPP ( http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/ ). It’s much better!

• Pat

  November 6th, 2008 1:31 am

  Great article. I am pleased to have most of the top ones but of the few I haven’t I especially like “WP Ajax Edit Comments”. The number of times I post a comment only to notice a mistake afterwards is unreal :-)

• Jeff Kershner

  November 6th, 2008 1:44 am

  I really like the Popularity Contest by http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress though I wish it had the ability for me to overwrite what posts I personally want to show up.

• Wayne John

  November 6th, 2008 1:51 am

  Thanks for the list Darren. When I start my WordPress blog I’ll be sure to check each one of these out.

• Nick

  November 6th, 2008 1:51 am

  Yeah I use Google for my analytics, but I have noticed that it doesn’t seem to update in real time, which kind of bothered me a little. So I still use Google, but I installed Wordpress stats again. I also suggest that you add the plugin “wassup” Its really great.

  But all the plugins that you listed are all the ones I use too. hehe. They are totally 100% Awesome plugins!

• Naren Ubi

  November 6th, 2008 1:57 am

  Good list! ‘m also using some of the listed ones already. You must also check out the cool archives page powered by Snazzy Archives. Also, I use Disqus commenting system, pretty cool, I should say!!

• Yield to Pedestrian: Great Short Stories

  November 6th, 2008 1:57 am

  Great list! I would also add that Zemanta is a wonderful tool I like to use, as well as Share This and Sociable for helping people use social media. All in One SEO is a great tool. I use Akismet and I also use BadBehavior as a backup. For comments, I like the much recommended Disqus. Thank you!

• Justin Wright

  November 6th, 2008 1:57 am

  Great list of plugins. I am using just about all those and they have helped my blog along the way. I would also suggest using a plugin such as the I Love Social Bookmarking to help make it easy for others to share your posts.

• Peter Cooper

  November 6th, 2008 2:10 am

  I seem to recall Thesis-specific comments relating to SEO plugins and that you need to be really careful as to what they do in regards to Thesis. I’m in a rush so just did a quick Google and on the Thesis site itself it says you don’t need the SEO plugins – though perhaps they are wrong :)

  http://diythemes.com/thesis/rtfm/thesis-wordpress-plugins/

• Rob Chant

  November 6th, 2008 2:14 am

  Interesting. I run Thesis myself and am fairly SEO-savvy, and I’m pretty happy with it. Just wondering if there’s anything I’m missing…

• Cosmin Ghiu

  November 6th, 2008 2:15 am

  Darren –

  thats wild. these are the same ones i install when creating a new blog.

  great post!

• Sonya

  November 6th, 2008 2:17 am

  Thanks for the info. I’m thinking of starting a new blog myself so these plugins will definitely come in handy.

• The Reluctant Eater

  November 6th, 2008 2:31 am

  Just an FYI. Google Analytics defaults to not showing the current day (it waits till there are complete stats for the day). If you change your date range in the upper right hand corner, and see your stats for that day. It appears to change every few minutes (when you refresh).

  Great list. Thanks!

• Daryl Pereira

  November 6th, 2008 2:31 am

  Thanks for this useful post. Do you know of a good plug-in to list the most read posts on the homepage?

• Keral Patel

  November 6th, 2008 3:21 am

  Nice list of very essential plugins for any WP installation.

  Some interlinking plugin could also be added to link posts to each other.

• Milinda

  November 6th, 2008 3:22 am

  Thanks for the list of plugins. I had most of the plugin installed. But the comment related plugins are new to me.

• Devin @ CoolProducts

  November 6th, 2008 3:25 am

  That seems like a strong list of plugins. Good luck with the new blog, Darren.

• Franklin Bishop

  November 6th, 2008 3:28 am

  These are all your basic plugins that you need to start out with. Without them it will even take longer to create a successful blog. These will make you more productive and have a better chance to bring visitors to your web site. I think that everyone definitely needs the late those blog post so that other bloggers know where to find these 10 simple WordPress plugins.

• Bret Frohlich

  November 6th, 2008 3:32 am

  Great Post

  I would also recommend:

  FeedBurner – RSS
  Share This – Social Networking

  They make it very easy to get your RSS and DIgg / Stumble Upon going on your blog.

  Bret

• Franklin Bishop

  November 6th, 2008 3:35 am

  These are all great plugins for beginners. Highly recommended for anyone starting a blog.

• Nick

  November 6th, 2008 3:58 am

  I’ve been using the What Would Seth Godin Do? Plugin with pretty decent success. It lets you very easily write a short description that gets put at the top of you post when a new visitor arrives.

  You can customize the message including HTML and also say how many times you want the message to appear for a new visitor.

  I haven’t been using it long enough to know if it is improving my return visitors or subscriber stats, but it is interesting.

  http://richardkmiller.com/wordpress-plugin-what-would-seth-godin-do

• Anna (Green Talk)

  November 6th, 2008 4:01 am

  I would add the following:

  Email responder if you like to communicate with your readers via the comments.

  Comment luv to encourage comments by showing other blogger’s last blog post

  WP Slimstat- ex which I like so much better than google and any other stat counter out there. I actually use both ex-slimstats so I can see what posts people are reading and my host’s stats which is probably the most reliable. You may have to make some fixes to ex-slimstats if the author did not update it yet. He talks about them in the comments.

  Don’t forget to add an editing plug-in as well so your commenters can edit their work if they want to change something. (WP ajax edit comments.)

• Sheryl Schuff

  November 6th, 2008 4:16 am

  I’d add wp-db-backup and tiny MCE editor

• Computer Repair & Maintenance

  November 6th, 2008 4:41 am

  When starting a new blog, the first plug-in I install is Spam Karma 2 or SK2. I think it’s a lot better than the Akismet plug-in most people use for spam.

  You can find this plug-in at http://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma/

• Neil

  November 6th, 2008 4:45 am

  Great list! Once again you prove what a valuable resource you are to the blogging community.

• kaidez

  November 6th, 2008 4:51 am

  I’d like to recommend Login Lockdown. Very good tool for keeping your Wordpress site as secure as possible

  Also, a great link about Wordpress security can be found at http://www.noupe.com/how-tos/wordpress-security-tips-and-hacks.html .

• Brad Hart @ A DoFollow Blog

  November 6th, 2008 4:52 am

  Akismet is very good at catching spam but I prefer wp-spam free which eliminated my need to use a captcha on blogs that have live commenting.

  I much prefer headspace 2 to AIOSP any day of the week when it comes to sheer performance. It takes more of learning curve than the all in one, but it is worth it in my opinion.

  Cforms I will agree is a fine plugin but have had really good luck over the last year with the “secure php contact form” from mike jolley over the last year It integrates easily into my page templates.

  I use WP Stats as well as google analytics, but found Woopra to be very useful in conjunction to those.

  Ajax edit comments and subscribe to comments are both great. I like using them in conjunction with wp comment remix. It provides me with the opportunity to interact with my readers better and for them to quote each other with comment linking.

  Like you said you are not up to needing related posts or pagenavi yet, but I have found that I really prefer pagebar 2 to pagenavi for most things. An great addition to related posts is Stumble! for Wordpress. It works like stumbleupon for your blog. The other day I had someone stumble through my wife’s blog for the better part of 2 hours. While I personally rarely get more than 2 or 3 extra page views out of it, I expect that as I have more content over the years I will. i would love to see what sort of random posts I would find with it here on problogger.

  Other plugins I find extremely useful and you might as well are as follows.

  WP Relative Date. Being a twitter site for you having the post say posted 12 seconds ago 4 minutes or 3 hours might be useful.

  I am really fond of Tagaroo both for the semantic tag suggestions but I like the fact it feeds me relevant public flickr images I can use. It is less work for me and autolinks the image to the flickr page for just the sort of recognition those people deserve.

  Tagaroo doesn’t catch all the possible semantic tags, but I find by adding the Calais Archive tagger I can once a week tell it to search the archive and look for new tags. In conjunction with tagaroo and a theme that automatically turns my wp tags into searchable meta keywords I increased the search traffic significantly.

  Sphere related content plugin has brought my news blog quite a bit of traffic from major sites such as CNN and Time.

  Robot Meta is great since you just don’t want every page getting the same search treatment.

  In Series is really good for linking serial posts.

  Batch categories isn’t necessary for new blogs, but is invaluable for old ones, though it is best to use it with a redirection plugin

  My favorite of all plugins though is auto social which automatically puts my posts on del.icio.us

• Bob Angus

  November 6th, 2008 5:06 am

  I would second the Feedburner stats and YARPP recommendations in previous comments. And I’ll throw in another great plugin… Alex King’s Popularity Contest

  Popularity contest is a great way highlight what your readers think are the most popular posts. It’s fully customizable on what “popular” is.

• David Cheong

  November 6th, 2008 5:13 am

  Its a great thing that we can know more and learn more about twitter and at the same time, knowing what type of WP plugin you would recommend for those just started to use wordpress to blog.

  Thanks
  David Cheong

• JD (1to1million)

  November 6th, 2008 5:22 am

  I posted my 12 Essential Wordpress Plugins in October and its great to see that we crossed over on half of them.

  http://www.1to1million.com/2008/10/essential-wordpress-plugins-for-seo.html

  The irony is that the blog I posted my list on is actually on Blogger, worst mistake I ever made for that site, and will be moving it to Wordpress come Xmas break.

  Looking forward to playing with ‘Simple Tags’ to see what it can do for me.

• Geek Entrepreneur

  November 6th, 2008 6:13 am

  I would also add to your list (and the other plugins mentioned already) the following:

  Comment Relish: Increases your readership and RSS subscription rate by simply sending a short ‘thank you’ relishing type message to users when they first comment on your weblog.

  Insights: Insights allows you to quickly access and insert information (links, images, videos, maps..) into your blog posts.

  Search Meter: Keeps track of what your visitors are searching for. After you have activated this plugin, you can check the Search Meter Statistics page to see what your visitors are searching for on your blog.

  Wesley
  The Geek Entrepreneur

• MK (Casey) van Bronkhorst

  November 6th, 2008 6:27 am

  I’ve installed StatPress and the new Add to Any: Share/Save/Bookmark button. I went with YARPP instead of Related Posts and am very pleased with the increased control.

  Before I install a WP plugin, I check Lester Chan’s site – if he has developed a plugin to see if he’s written one with the functionalit I need. If so, I go with his version. They just work, period. He writes install and configure instructions in plain easily understood terms.

  Unfortunately for all WP users, Lester has had to put his plugin development on hold while school is in session, but I’m trying to entice him back to some weekend post-homework action with a few well-intended donations to offset school costs. http://lesterchan.net/

• Download Free Software

  November 6th, 2008 6:31 am

  I just started my blog last week but I have 10 plugins that I already use. Here they are (in alphabetic order):

  adsense deluxe, all in one seo pack, aizatto related posts, commentluv, feedburner plugin, google analytics for wordpress, google sitemap generator, sociable, wordpress automatic upgrade, recaptcha

  I hope that helps someone.

• MissEm

  November 6th, 2008 6:31 am

  Hi Darren,

  I use all of those plugins you’ve mentioned.
  When I start a new blog, as well as the one’s you’ve mentioned, I also add the following:

  - Autoclose – to close comments, trackbacks and pings after a certain time.
  - Different Posts Per Page – to give my readers some other posts they might like to read.
  - Feedburner Smith- goes without saying.
  - Maintenance Mode – displays a ‘come back later’ splash page for when you need to do some blog ‘renovating’!
  - Next Gen Gallery – The best gallery for photos and albums.
  - Admin Drop down menu – replaces the admin menu with a CSS dropdown menu bar. Better for navigation.
  - Lucia’s Link Love – Where a commenter has commented at least some number of times links are then made “dofollow”.
  - Ozh Who See’s Ads – Highly and easily configurable plugin for Adsense and affiliate ads. You create the ad then decide where they go, and who see’s them, with a simple syntax or php code for posts, pages or templates. (highly recommended, I love this one!)
  - Similar Posts – displays related posts
  - Simple Trackback Validation – Eliminates spam trackbacks.
  - Sociable – adds links to social book marking sites.
  - Tan Tan Noodles – a check to stop really obvious comment spam before it is processed!
  - Tiny MCE Advanced.
  - Viper’s video quicktags – to easily embed video’s from numerous sources.
  - Where did they go from here – See what posts readers also viewed.
  - Wordpress Automatic Upgrade – Easiest way to upgrade to newer wordpress versions.
  - Wordpress Data Base Backup.
  - Wordpress Cache

  There are others that I add and have played with, but they are more for fun and not a ’standard’ plugin like the above.

• OnlineGodfather

  November 6th, 2008 6:34 am

  I am already using these plugins, damn i am good :D

• Rouse

  November 6th, 2008 6:58 am

  +Akismet for spam control.
  +All In One SEO
  +Clean Archives Reloaded–this is a great tool for an archives page
  +jQueryLightbox–adds Lightbox feature to my photography page. Makes my photos look even better.
  +Lazyest Gallery–makes having a photography gallery easier
  +tags4pages–allows you to tag pages

  I use a couple of the others you mentioned and really like them. Also, with the latest build of WordPress (I’m using the new beta version) you don’t need the Automatic Upgrade plugin anymore. WP now has an auto upgrade included. And you can directly install plugins and themes through a new option, or download the old-fashion way.

• Robin

  November 6th, 2008 7:24 am

  Comment Luv and Subscribe Remind

• Valeria | TimelessLessons

  November 6th, 2008 7:56 am

  Hey, I use almost all if those plugins you’ve mentioned.

  By the way, it is great that you started a new blog, I’m sure we’ll learn a lot from this launch.

  Thank you Darren.

• Jazzy

  November 6th, 2008 9:16 am

  I use Akismet and it works really well, although ocassionaly it has caught a real comment that wasnt spam and I had to fish them out.

• Paul

  November 6th, 2008 9:41 am

  WordPress Automatic Upgrade, In Series, and StatPress are three I would always install.

• Michael Aulia

  November 6th, 2008 10:39 am

  I’ve heard and used most of the plug-ins you mention, except the Tweet This. Should probably give it a go and see whether my readers will use it

• Judy Benedict

  November 6th, 2008 11:17 am

  This is a great list. Only have used the Askimet plug-in and it is a great tool. I believe this a great package of 10 to add to every blog setup I do. Thanks!

• Dimitri

  November 6th, 2008 12:19 pm

  Cool post, Darren, love your new Twitt blog too. Do they have Russian equivalent to this plugins?

• dev from Www.iHacK.ASIA

  November 6th, 2008 1:43 pm

  like number 4,9 and 10 WP plugin, if Darren dont post here then i think i will never know it ,thank Darren

• Ken

  November 6th, 2008 2:10 pm

  As a new blogger, this post will save me weeks of wasted time. Thanks.

• Nate Moller

  November 6th, 2008 2:34 pm

  Thanks for the list. Here are a couple others I really like:

  Most Commented: may not be great for a new blog but I really like this one as a way to show that your blog is active and getting response.

  Threaded Comments: this one needs a bit of cleaning up – the automated emails have pretty bad grammar and can be modified and personalized.

  I’ll stay tune for more tips on the best plugins – thanks!

• Hussein

  November 6th, 2008 3:39 pm

  Yeah Threaded comment is missing. :) Great Plugins. I am using almost all of them.

• Whateverebay

  November 6th, 2008 5:25 pm

  Hi Darren,

  I use all of those plugins you’ve mentioned. However, I am having difficulties with ping.fm – No idea what I am doing wrong. Sometimes it works. How can I ensure it will work? thanks, Laura

• lazy drunk

  November 6th, 2008 5:50 pm

  nice. just what Ive been look for.

• suz

  November 6th, 2008 6:32 pm

  I have to add Yet Another Related Post Plugin from http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/ , since installing this my page views have doubled and it has the added benefit of people clicking through to your site from their feed reader if there is an interesting related post.

• Mario Andrade

  November 6th, 2008 6:46 pm

  I actually prefer Yet Another Related Posts Plugin:
  http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/ to Related Posts. Like Suz said very well lets include related posts in the feeds :)

• Bobbi Jo Woods

  November 6th, 2008 6:54 pm

  Thanks for this comprehensive list!

  I actually started using Twitback a while ago but recently heard about Tweeterfeed a couple of times and now I finally signed up because Twitback was not updating for me, on the last couple of blog posts.

• Sergey Velichkevych

  November 6th, 2008 9:14 pm

  Thanks, really best plugins list.

  I use also WP-PostViews (Enables you to display how many times a post/page had been viewed)

• Chris Howard

  November 7th, 2008 12:28 am

  I turned Akismet off. Don’t need it.

  I discovered WP-SpamFree

  It’s just fantastic. Set and forget.

  http://www.problogger.net/wp-content/themes/problogger2/images/post_comment.gif

• sony

  November 7th, 2008 12:47 am

  Hello sir i have just started my wp blog. But i am unable to implement SITEMAP for my blog. My wp is 2.6 and when i try to build it manually it shows update ultimate tag generator. Wht should i do? No updates for that particular pluin.

• Make Money Online with Harry

  November 7th, 2008 1:03 am

  Shortstat is a good option if in depth stats from analytics are not required.

• kaidez

  November 7th, 2008 3:33 am

  sony:

  If you’re using the Google Sitemaps plugin, go to the settings page, click on the Google Sitemaps link you should be able to update it manually. If it’s still not working, it might be a server issue with your web host.

• John Hoff - eVentureBiz

  November 7th, 2008 3:43 am

  @ Darren and Bill – check out the Platinum SEO Pack as an alternative for All-In-One. It does everything All-In-One does plus some, such as auto fills for your article’s keywords and description. Not always accurate, but a good back up.

  @ MaCo – CommentLuv is a plugin which will display your commentator’s last blog article below their comment (see my blog comment section as an example).

  @ Roy Scribner – try W3Counter for your blog stats. It even integrates the stats into your WordPress dashboard.

  @ Wayne John – Here’s an article I wrote, if Darren doesn’t mind the link, to 50+ Wordpress Plugins & Hacks Candy Store. It’s a post I outlined you guessed it, 50+ WordPress plugins noting what each does and an * next to the ones I use.

  @ Daryl Pereira – Try the Popularity Contest Plugin. Just google it.

  @kaidez – Absolutely! Login Lockdown should be automatically included in WordPress. Everyone should get this plugin.

  @ Dimitri – Here’s one site that has translated some plugins. I bet if you email the site owner he could point you in the right direction.

  @ Ken – I’m always available for anyone who has WordPress questions. I’m here to help, no cost.

  @ sony – this plugin should do the trick.

• Andy

  November 7th, 2008 4:17 am

  Great list! There are still a few that I have to check into here!

• Clare Swindlehurst

  November 7th, 2008 5:10 am

  I’d add –
  Feedburner
  Amazon reloaded
  Related Posts YARPP
  Homepage Excerpts (depending on your theme)

  Great post – I’m a bit of a plugin tart and while I’ve heard of all the ones you mentioned there are some interesting ones mentioned in the comments!

• Mr Javo

  November 7th, 2008 5:42 am

  May be All In One SEO Pack is the most important of them because it lets you customize the Title, Description and Keywords of every single post…

• Carla

  November 7th, 2008 8:22 am

  The All in One SEO Pack has made a difference in the amount of targeted traffic I receive. I’ve only known about it for about a month and a half! There is an upgrade since I started, but I haven’t been able to successfully download it yet.

  I have to look into the other ones!

• joe gelb

  November 7th, 2008 8:33 am

  tweet this looks very cool.

• crowd

  November 7th, 2008 8:57 am

  Useful indeed. Does anybody have an ide about the security of the AJAX ones?
  (just qurious, ususlly the bad hacks and exploits happen to any major CMS trough some plugin)

• Kathrin

  November 7th, 2008 12:46 pm

  I have been trying to install Akismet, but I cannot find the API Key. Wordpress.com says it is on the “profile” page, but it is no where to be found.

  Is there someone else where I can look? I have WP installed on my own domain website. Does that make a difference?

  Thanks so much!
  Kathrin

• mecozz

  November 7th, 2008 3:06 pm

  great plugin, I just use 3 plugins

• Fotografo

  November 7th, 2008 3:57 pm

  Wow really interesting. A good start for new bloggers.

• Sheryl Schuff

  November 7th, 2008 4:30 pm

  @kathrin

  After you login, click on “My Account” at top left of page, then “edit profile.” Your API key will be listed as the first item in the section called “Your Profile and Personal Options” toward the top left.

  It’s in sort of small print, so look carefully.

• zura

  November 7th, 2008 4:30 pm

  hi, Darren…

  Thanks for the tips..
  But would you like to show me the way to install Google XML Sitemap also shoutbox to my wordpress blog?

  I’ve tried to install the shoutbox one, but failed. I also have tried to post it via guest book tab, but failed too. It’s only a link to shoutmix.com

  And I can’t plugin tab on my wordpress blog, or it just for upgrading blogs?

  Please advise.
  Thank you

• kaidez

  November 7th, 2008 9:37 pm

  Hi zura. Make sure you download the plugin files and upload them…instructions are at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/installation/.

  Where XML Sitemap is different from most Wordpress plugins is that it requires you create two files: sitemap.xml and sitemap.xml.gz. You then have to change the modifications (that CHMOD thing in the Installation instructions). There are many free apps that you can use for this but a good FTP client link Interarchy or Filezilla should allow you to do this.

• kaidez

  November 7th, 2008 9:44 pm

  Hi zura. I just checked your site and just noticed something and I apologize in advance for not doing that first…

  You’re running your site off of wordpress.com, which means that you’re VERY limited as to how much you can customize your blog. Someone out there please correct if I’m wrong, but I don’t think you’ll be able to install certain plugins.

• Matthew Babbs

  November 7th, 2008 10:21 pm

  That’s a very solid list of plugins – it’s reassuring to see so much overlap with the ones I use!

  One thing I do differently is that instead of cforms, I use gbcf. It’s not only very powerful and configurable, but the quality of the code makes it very easy to work with.

• Vince

  November 8th, 2008 2:23 am

  Automating backup of the DB is HUGE – http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming/php/

• Make Money Online

  November 8th, 2008 2:50 am

  Great list of plugins. However, some of them aren’t really necessary, such as Simple Tags.

  The most important one to have is All-in-one SEO.

• Alcides Fialho

  November 8th, 2008 6:25 am

  Hi Darren,

  Usefull post !! Two months ago i started my blog (http://www.alcidesfialho.eu) and because we have thousands of usefull plugins, what i did was to create a ”test site” in order to test the plugins i found interesting. after a while of testing and tweaking, this is my final release :

  Askimet
  All in one SEO pack
  Cforms
  Feedburner feedsmith
  Google XML sitemaps
  KB Advanced RSS Widget
  Lightbox Plus
  My Page Order
  Sociable
  Woopra

  Nevertheless it was really hard in the begining to understand which ones where the right ones !!!

  Cheers !!!

• John Hoff - eVentureBiz

  November 8th, 2008 1:04 pm

  @ Kathrin – it’s been awhile since I installed Askimet but I think the way it works now is you have to sign up for a free account on WordPress.com in order to receive your API key.

  You don’t have to do anything with the account. Then when you get your API key, enter it in on your hosted WordPress account and your golden.

  If you have troubles, go to my site and use the contact form to “Contact John” and I’ll be more than happy to assist you.

• Current $30 off Caffeinated Content Plugin

  November 8th, 2008 8:20 pm

  One of the newest plugins, very popular is the caffeinated content plugin. It helps you pull a lot of unique data on your blog. You can even get YouTube videos on there. And so much more. Very cool plugin!

• Kempton

  November 9th, 2008 4:40 am

  I just set up a blog with the plug in TDO Mini Forms, which enabled me to create a kind of twitter like site. The actual site I made is actually a revrse twitter, people can post about what they see other people doing. The forms plug in is really great, os if you are interested in twitter type products, you may want to check it out.

• Dr. Mike Wendell

  November 11th, 2008 1:56 am

  Last time I knew, wp.com-stats was cached and displays cached data. Granted it’s not an only once a day update like Analytics is but it’s not live.

  At least that’s what Automattic folks tell people on the wp.com forums.

• Jamie Simmerman

  November 11th, 2008 4:36 am

  I really want the WordPress Comment Ninja pluggin, but have heard it’s a pain to get up and running. :(

• exinco

  November 11th, 2008 4:42 am

  any suggestion for integrated forum with wordpress blog?

• dirtybluewidgets

  November 12th, 2008 6:31 am

  I only have a few plugins I like to use and find worthwhile
  Askimet
  All in one SEO pack
  Cforms
  Google XML sitemaps

  and the latest one I have added is Privacy Policy maker…google seems to like about us, contact us and privacy policy pages as part of their ranking system.

• Brad Hart @ A DoFollow Blog

  November 12th, 2008 10:06 am

  dirtybluewidgets: It iis much easier to write your contact and policy pages into your theme templates. You never become plugin dependent and as such don’t have to worry about upgrades.

  exinco: Simple Press Forum works great I have just set it up at http://bradstinyworld.com/forum/

  Another new plugin I discovered a couple of days ago is wp link directory. The plugin will autmoatically allow visitors to add links into prearranged categories. While this has potential for abuse it also has great potential for new websites if you are willing to monitor it. This is my first time promoting the plugin in use, so I am only using it on a low ranking site until I can get a feel for it. The nice thing is I can always manually add nofollow tags or delete any link I don’t want to pass value on to.

  http://wtfarewegoingtodonow.com/link-directory/

• 20somethingfinance.com

  November 12th, 2008 10:11 am

  Hi Darren,

  The following are necessities in my opinion: Akismet, all-in-one SEO, Share This, Subscribe to Comments, Google XML Sitemaps.

  Nice to have: WP Polls, Automatic Upgrader, Top Commentators.

  What is the best popularity/post rating plugin you’ve seen or used?

• Kumaresan

  November 13th, 2008 9:57 pm

  Just what I was looking for, Thanks Darren

• redwall_hp

  November 14th, 2008 3:48 am

  I also recommend the useful WP125 plugin (yeah, it’s mine… :D ). It makes it real easy to manage 125×125 ads when you get to the point that you’re direct-selling your own ads.

  http://www.webmaster-source.com/wp125-ad-plugin-wordpress/

  Now I admit that the plugin’s not going to do you a whole lot of good in your blog’s early days, unless you have a fantastic launch like TwiTip or Freelance Switch had, but it’s worth keeping in mind for the future. (Or you could put affiliate banners in until you can get “real” sponsors).

  I also recommend WP Super Cache. It will save you a fair bit of money by taking a lot of load off your server. It breaks some plugins, but it’s worth it if you’re on shared hosting.

• Martin

  November 15th, 2008 1:01 pm

  I like Codebanter’s Wordpress autoresponder plugin, http://www.CodeBanter.com

  Works like a charm..

• Tom

  November 18th, 2008 4:03 pm

  Awesome Darren, thank you for putting out this list.

  Also Thanks to all the commenters who put their two cents in. I got exposed to a lot of new plug-ins just from reading through the comments.

• Ivana - Affiliate Niche Stores

  November 18th, 2008 7:34 pm

  I love the CodeBanter, really cool and of course FREE :)

• Wordpress Guestbook Generator Plugin

  November 18th, 2008 8:53 pm

  Just what I was looking for, Thanks Darren

• Infonote

  November 20th, 2008 1:48 am

  I cannot believe you left out WP Super Cache especially for a new popular site like yours. You are causing unnecessary strain on the DB.

• Avi Alkalay

  December 2nd, 2008 10:37 pm

  Darren, I’d like to suggest Yawasp for an ultimate spam fighting solution. It uses innovative but yet simple methods to fight spam and I completely stopped getting spam.

  I wrote a small article about it on http://avi.alkalay.net/2008/12/yawasp-blog-anti-spam-solution.html

• Avi Alkalay

  December 2nd, 2008 10:39 pm

  There is one more to suggest. The Google Maps plugin, to let you very easily embed simple and complex maps in your posts.

  I wrote it myself and can be found here:
  http://avi.alkalay.net/2006/11/google-maps-plugin-for-wordpress.html
  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-maps-advanced/

  Thanks

• xgravity23

  December 10th, 2008 2:25 am

  I just recently wrote a guest post on BloggersGuide.net about 5 plugins I recommend, and mine had a decidedly social networking bent to them. Here’s the post: Five More WordPress Plugins to Simplify Your Blogging

• keram

  December 10th, 2008 5:17 am

  I have been experimenting with various breadcrumb plugins.

  Also no one mentioned MBP’s Faveicon plugin for a little pro-looking custom flourish in the URL browser line and search results.

  Thanks to everyone for all the st replies

• Rudi Lehnert

  December 11th, 2008 8:57 am

  Here are my recommendations for plugins and themes:

  http://blogorama.eisbrecher.net/2008/09/12/wordpress-backstage/

• Rudi Lehnert

  December 11th, 2008 9:12 am

  I forgot to recommend WP-SPAMFREE – absolutely the best Spamkiller I ever plugged into WordPress! See the red button on the bottom of the sidebar:

  http://blogorama.eisbrecher.net

• Andrea Nowack

  December 18th, 2008 10:47 am

  I’m looking for a good photo album plug-in that allows you to display several photo thumbnails; any recommendations?

• Brad Hart @ A DoFollow Blog

  December 20th, 2008 4:35 am

  @Andrea when it comes to creating galleries there is no plugin better than NextGen gallery. It takes some time to learn the plugin effectively but for gallery there is nothing better in my opinion.

• Blogevolution2.0

  December 21st, 2008 6:52 am

  Great list Darren, Thanks for sharing.

  Terry

• YRP Jen

  December 22nd, 2008 11:42 pm

  Awesome – I’m going to use Subscribe to Comments.

  We just started our website, blog and forum & would appreciate feedback – http://www.yourrealtyportal.com. The site is for professionals in the real estate industry.

  ProBlogger continues to be a wealth of information so I have it on our website as a must-have tool! YRP Jen.

• Jeff

  December 30th, 2008 8:06 am

  It’s worth saying: this post is still essential for starting new blogs

• staxbrix stax brix

  January 10th, 2009 10:34 pm

  Theres some good plug in up there but I think you missed a few.

  http://waronyou.com/topics/air-force-releases-counter-blog-marching-orders/
  http://seotricksguide.info/products-page/

• Thailandseo

  January 24th, 2009 1:28 pm

  Great list! and Thanks for sharing to me.

• B Becker

  January 31st, 2009 6:43 am

  Here are a few we really like on our craft blog at http://www.favecraftsblog.com such as:
  Smart Youtube – Insert YouTube videos in posts
  Sociable 3.0.2 – Automatically add links on your posts, pages and RSS feed to your favorite social bookmarking sites.
  WordPress Database Backup – automatic or on-demand backup of your WordPress database.
  Thanks to everyone for sharing.

• Hikari

  February 2nd, 2009 2:55 am

  Those are nice plugins. Tnx for the tips.

• Lizy Buelle

  February 19th, 2009 10:24 pm

  Well, actually, I might be wrong. It does appear to have some issues when I’m using it on my new blog.

• Jeremy Burns

  February 25th, 2009 9:32 am

  Super plugin advice. I have had a blog installed for a few years and only made 4 pr 5 posts to it. I was just setting up a new blog that I am committed to actually getting off the ground this time.

  I was not sure of what plugins to start with so I figured even better than Goggle, go search ProBlogger for the answer to this question.

  Glad I did, thank you!

• Big Robby

  April 7th, 2009 1:15 pm

  Good article. I prefer Platinum SEO because it automatically handles 301’s if you change a page name, tag name, etc. Also, socialite is a cool plugin that will send a tweet whenever you post or update an article.

• Jessica

  June 23rd, 2009 9:59 pm

  Plugins are one of the reasons that Wordpress is so great… they provide a lot of freedom that you can’t really get with other platforms. I’ll be doing a post on my blog soon all about why WP is great, Anyone’s interested?

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